Spanish Conditional Tense: A Quick Guide for Learners

If we wrote an article on the Spanish conditional tense, would you read it?

Okay, so the sentence you just read used the conditional. The conditional tense is used to describe what would happen. You can use it when talking about hypothetical situations, e.g. ‘I would buy the dress.’

When to use the conditional tense in Spanish

These conditions are conjugated in the imperfect subjunctive. There’s no need to go into the imperfect subjunctive in detail right now, but it’s helpful to be able to recognise it, so here are the common endings. Each person has two different forms for you to choose from, but I suggest the -ra form, as it’s more common than the -se form.

In each case, you take off the infinitive ending, and add the new endings onto the stem. There are exceptions (this is Spanish, after all!) but let’s not go into those right now!

-ar verbs

yo

hablara/hablase

tú

hablaras/hablases

él/ella/usted

hablara/hablase

nosotr@s

habláramos/hablásemos

vosotr@s

hablarais/hablaseis

ell@s/ustedes

hablaran/hablasen

-er/-ir

yo

vendiera/vendiese

tú

vendieras/vendieses

él/ella/usted

vendiera/vendiese

nosotr@s

vendiéramos/vendiésemos

vosotr@s

vendierais/vendieseis

ell@s/ustedes

vendieran/vendiesen

So, one way we can use the conditional is using the word si (‘if’) in one of these formulae:

Si [imperfect subjunctive], [conditional].

[Conditional] si [imperfect subjunctive].

Si tuviera la oportunidad, iría a Francia.

If I had the opportunity, I would go to France.

Iría a Francia si tuviera la oportunidad.

I would go to France if I had the opportunity.

Si viniera Juan, me alegraría mucho.

If Juan came, I’d be really happy.

Me alegraría mucho si viniera Juan.

I’d be really happy if Juan came.

Si no dañara la salud, bebería.

If it weren’t bad for one’s health, I’d drink.

Bebería si no dañara la salud.

I’d drink if it weren’t bad for one’s health.

Here are some more example sentences. Try to identify the conditional and the imperfect subjunctive in each case.

Your turn!

Annabel is a language-enthusiast from the UK. She studied Spanish and French at the University of Southampton (with an Erasmus study year in Madrid!) and recently graduated. She has interests across the Spanish-speaking world, and is a fan of language in general.